Young mind wants to know: Why call it 'spay,' 'neuter'?

by Clay Thompson - Aug. 14, 2010 12:00 AMThe Arizona Republic

Today's question:

My sons and I are involved in a project to neuter feral cats living in our neighborhood. To keep more kittens from being born wild, we trap them, neuter them and return them. Anyway, my 7-year-old asked me why we call it "spay and neuter."

First of all, good for you. Your project is a worthy one.

Next, I assume your son understands what spaying and neutering is all about - the removal of a pet's reproductive organs.

It would probably be more accurate to spay or neuter instead of and.

Spaying is a female thing. The word comes from the old Anglo-French word "espeiere," which meant "to cut with a sword." However, it also had a secondary meaning - "to remove ovaries from."

Neuter is a Latin word meaning "neither one or the other" or "neither male nor female."

So in the case of a female cat or dog, the terms spaying and neutering can be used interchangeably.

But only females can be spayed, what with the noticeable absence of ovaries in males.

Whenever you read about shooting stars or events like the Perseid meteor shower, many say the objects you see blazing through the sky are particles of space dust, grains of sand or bits of ice. Are these objects that we readily see entering the Earth's atmosphere far above us really the size of grains of sand or dust? How big does one have to be to reach the surface of the Earth?

Most of them are just specks of space dust. As for how big a meteor has to be to make it through Earth's atmosphere, I found two estimates.

One said the size of a marble and one said the size of a basketball. I'm leaning toward the basketball.